Recently by Tom Bearden
'No One Is Higher Than Me,' Sheriff Arpaio Tells Inmate
April 24, 2012 | Over the years, the sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, has appeared on every major news network in the U.S. and more than a few in other countries. I first interviewed him nearly 20...
DeterLab's Cyber 'Racetrack' Battles Computer Hackers
April 16, 2012 | UCLA computer science graduate student Erik Kline really enjoys his studies. That's partly because he has access to a massive computer test bed -- sort of a mini-Internet where he and other researchers can safely stage computer attacks and counterattacks....
Risky Business in the Pacific Northwest
April 12, 2012 | On Thursday's PBS NewsHour, Tom Bearden reports on efforts to better understand a phenomenon called liquefaction. When a powerful earthquake shakes a region, sandy soils can turn to liquid and lose their ability to support weight....
Military Photographer: 'The Medic Could Not Get There Fast Enough'
October 27, 2011 | Generations of Stacy Pearsall's family have worn uniforms: Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. So it probably wasn't much of surprise when she asked her parents to join the Air Force at the age of 17. She is a...
Keystone Oil Pipeline Project Divides Nebraska Residents
October 10, 2011 | The NewsHour's Tom Bearden and photographer Brian Gill traveled to Nebraska's Sand Hills for a recent story. Photo by Tom Bearden. If your car ever dies in the middle of nowhere, you better hope you're in Nebraska. While working...
9/11's Profound Effects on Air Travel
September 8, 2011 | Passengers at Los Angeles International Airport pass through security in 2010. File photo by David McNew/Getty Images When Denver International Airport opened in 1995, the city was particularly proud of the main terminal building. They spent a lot of...
Rural Post Offices on Shaky Ground
August 12, 2011 | More than 3,500 post offices are being evaluated for potential closure. Photo by AFP/Getty. If you blink, you might miss it. That's how the Postmaster in Parshall, Colo., Grant Burger, described his town recently. In fact, photographer Brian Gill...
Searching for 'Lost' Ladybugs
July 12, 2011 | Flickr @martincron Gail Starr has ladybugs in her ears. Not actual, live, ladybugs, but rather ladybug earrings. She has multiple pairs, many of them gifts from her students. She teaches third grade at Springs Ranch Elementary School, and regularly...
Montanans Worry About Fallout from Yellowstone Spill
July 8, 2011 | "The last, best place." That's how Montanans often describe their state to outsiders. "A great place to raise a family" is also popular. They brag about their deep blue "Big Sky," the scenery, and the hunting and fishing. But...
Hamming Up the Airwaves
July 1, 2011 | A battery-powered, five-transmitter simulated emergency radio site at Prospect Park in Littleton, Colorado. Photo by Tom Bearden. When a giant tornado devastated Joplin, Mo., earlier this year, it destroyed more than homes, schools, and businesses. It also destroyed a...
Amid Flooding Threat in Louisiana, Not All Obeying Evacuation Order
May 16, 2011 | In Krotz Springs, La., the Mississippi River threatens to inundate local homes and businesses, but not everyone is heeding the call to evacuate the area. Tune in to Monday's NewsHour for Bearden's full report on the threat...
Reporter's Notebook: The BP Oil Spill, One Year Later
April 15, 2011 | As the first anniversary of the British Petroleum oil well blowout approaches, Gulf Coast residents are taking stock of what has happened to them and contemplating what the future might hold. NewsHour Correspondent Tom Bearden was on the scene during...
Program Offers Badly Wounded Vets a Rugged Road Back to Health
April 4, 2011 | On the NewsHour Monday, we present a profile of LifeQuest -- a private, civilian-run organization in Colorado Springs that helps badly wounded veterans recover their physical and mental health. The non-profit group uses a combination of physical exercise and Outward...
Future Remains Murky for Newly Unveiled Orion Spacecraft
March 25, 2011 | As far back as 1962, some Americans said that the money the government spent sending John Glenn into orbit in a tiny Mercury capsule would have been better spent taking care of people on the ground....
Students Experience Hunger to Raise Money for Haiti
March 1, 2011 | Students sort clothes at World Vision warehouse. Photo by Tom Bearden Any parent can testify to the fact that teenagers can sometimes resemble a plague of locusts -- they can eat you out of house and home. So it...
At Arizona Hospital, Spontaneous Vigil Grows
January 14, 2011 | They just keep coming. When we arrived in Tucson on Sunday afternoon, we went to University Memorial Hospital, where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was in intensive care. It was chaotic. Frustrated police officers did their best to direct heavy traffic...
Problems With San Jose Mine Emerge in Wake of Trapped Miners' Ordeal
September 13, 2010 | COPIAPO, Chile | For about a month now, most of the international stories about the Chilean mine disaster have been about what many people see as a miracle: that all 33 miners survived the cave-in that took place on Aug....
Trapped Miners' Families Stay Vigilant in Chile
September 10, 2010 | COPIAPO, Chile | The makeshift tent city at the entrance to the San Jose gold and copper mine houses relatives of the 33 miners trapped by a cave-in nearly half a mile underground. For more than a month, they have...
Chile Dispatch: Trapped Miners Sent Small Luxuries, but Pine for More
September 7, 2010 | COPIAPO, Chile | On Tuesday afternoon, a city of Copiapo truck dumped a fresh load of firewood next to a small cluster of tents where several trapped miners' families have spent the last month camping on the rocky ground. They...
Louisiana Shrimp, Petroleum Festival Draws Attention Amid Oil Woes
September 3, 2010 | MORGAN CITY, La. | Some people might find it odd that this city near Louisiana's southern coast has a Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. Somehow the two don't seem to go together. But some local citizens get a bit testy...
At Louisiana Forum, Questions on Oil Spill's Long-Term Impact
August 26, 2010 | So many questions, so few definitive answers. Last Saturday, I participated in the taping of a television program called "Louisiana Public Square." It's part of a monthly public affairs series that airs on the six non-commercial television stations that comprise...
Debate Over Reopening Gulf Fishing Grounds Falls Along Surprising Lines
August 13, 2010 | The state of Louisiana is about to reopen several state-controlled fishing grounds that were closed because of the Macondo oil well disaster. You'd think that fishermen would be thrilled with that idea. You'd be wrong. A couple of dozen...
In the Gulf, Questions Over Where to Put Oil Waste
August 11, 2010 | The Macondo oil well in the Gulf may be capped, but the containment and cleanup effort generated a huge amount of waste. First, there's 13 million gallons of liquid waste -- oil mixed with water -- that was skimmed up...
In Louisiana, Journalists and Cleanup Crews Bake in the Heat
August 6, 2010 | If you're not used to it, the heat and humidity along the Gulf Coast can be devastating. I'm not used to it, despite having made eight trips to the Gulf since April 28. I live in Colorado, where the...
Gulf Residents Ask: Will Promises Be Broken on the Oil Spill Response?
August 5, 2010 | A lot of people in south Louisiana think the rest of the country is about to abandon them. Again. On Wednesday, the U.S. government announced that most of the oil from the Macondo well blowout is already gone --...
Going Aboard the Drillship Discoverer Enterprise in the Gulf
August 2, 2010 | For months, the eyes of the world were focused on the images coming from the drillship Discoverer Enterprise. Cameras aboard the ship's ROVs, or remotely operated vehicles, provided part of the video stream from the blown out well, and...
Despite Skeptics, Feinberg Enthusiastic to Put $20B Oil Disaster Fund to Work
July 25, 2010 | BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. | At 7 a.m. Saturday, Kenneth Feinberg stood in front of a standing-room only crowd at the municipal building in Bayou La Batre, Ala., and told people "I am your lawyer." He didn't get much...
For Fishermen on Louisiana's Coast, Guarded Optimism on an Oil Fix
July 16, 2010 | Out-of-work fishermen do maintenance on their boats at the Delta Marina in Empire, La. "At least we're taking more oil out of the Gulf than is going in," says Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish. Cautiously optimistic. Pleased, but...
Gulf Shore a Tough Sell for Tourists
July 2, 2010 | Each night conga lines of beach cleaning machines are towed slowly over the sand from Orange Beach to Gulf Shores, Ala. Rotating steel screens separate out the tar balls and larger clumps of congealed crude oil that wash ashore during...
Dock Workers in La. Wonder When the Next Shrimp Catch Will Come
May 29, 2010 | Friday morning we watched what is likely the last catch of shrimp from Louisiana's Barataria Bay for the foreseeable future being unloaded. That's because early Friday authorities closed down the last remaining parts of the fishing grounds that were...
Out on the Gulf, Oil You Can See, Smell, Taste in the Back of Your Mouth
May 27, 2010 | That giant oil slick bobbing atop of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico is just plain nasty. As Ed Overton put it, you can see it, smell it, and taste it in the back of your mouth. Overton...
Tight Security at Oil Spill Hearing in New Orleans
May 11, 2010 | The U.S. Coast Guard and the federal Minerals Management Service staged the first of two public hearings at the Radisson airport hotel in New Orleans Tuesday, as part of a joint investigation into the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil...
Dispatch From Alabama: Watching, Waiting for Impact of Oil Spill
May 9, 2010 | Correspondent Tom Bearden has been reporting from Louisiana and Alabama on the impact of the Gulf Coast oil spill and filed this dispatch for the Rundown. There's a new feature on the local TV weather forecast in Mobile, Ala.: the...
Dispatch From Louisiana: The Brown Pelican and Media Etiquette
May 5, 2010 | The Fort Jackson bird rescue facility near Venice, La., got its second patient on Monday -- an oil-soaked Louisiana brown pelican. The gawky bird was picked up on Storm Island, but the folks who are standing by to clean...
The Gulf Coast Oil Spill: How Does It Compare to Exxon Valdez?
May 4, 2010 | A sign at an animal medical center in Bienville, Miss., reads "Pray for our Gulf" as people continue to monitor the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. So how bad will the...
In Louisiana, Local Fishermen Tapped to Help Oil Spill Cleanup Effort
May 3, 2010 | Correspondent Tom Bearden is reporting from Louisiana on the impact of the Gulf Coast oil spill and filed this dispatch for the Rundown. There's a new billboard in Buras, La. A personal injury lawyer is soliciting clients injured by...
Dispatch From Louisiana: One Bird Covered in Oil, Many Cameras
May 2, 2010 | Correspondent Tom Bearden is reporting from Louisiana on the impact of the Gulf Coast oil spill and filed this dispatch for the Rundown. Three dozen cameras, 50 reporters and one oil-soaked bird. An organization called Tri-State Bird Rescue and...
Dispatch from Louisiana: Fishermen Voice Their Frustrations on Oil Spill
May 1, 2010 | Correspondent Tom Bearden is reporting from Louisiana on the impact of the Gulf Coast oil spill and filed this dispatch for the Rundown on Saturday. The weather isn't cooperating. For several days after BP's leased oil rig exploded and...
Louisiana Dispatch: Bracing for the Spill
April 30, 2010 | Correspondent Tom Bearden is reporting from Louisiana on the impact of the Gulf oil spill and filed this dispatch for the Rundown. Why does it always seem to happen to Louisiana? We're in Venice, a town of about 500...
Colorado Moves to Steer Aid Toward Closed Car Dealers
March 8, 2010 | A lot of new car dealers have been looking for other work in the past year in the wake of the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. In Denver, GM told several local dealers to start winding down their...
A New Judicial Approach for Veterans in Trouble With the Law
March 3, 2010 | Nic Gray was a model soldier. He made staff sergeant in an unusually short period of time, and served honorably in Iraq. When his enlistment was up, he moved to Colorado Springs, Colo., to start a business and get on...
Olympic Snowboarding Coach on Training Challenges, Technology
February 12, 2010 | He bears little resemblance to Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy and the cocktail isn't named after him. This Rob Roy's day job is building affordable housing projects for senior citizens in Oregon. But that's not all. He's also spent the...
Credit Crunch Hits Small Businesses in Colorado
December 14, 2009 | The credit crunch has reached crisis proportions for small businesses in Colorado. A longtime business consultant told NewsHour producer Terry Rubin and me that this is the worst business climate he's seen in more than thirty years. Take Barbara Kantor,...
Tom Bearden: Photographers Focus on Family Portraits for Troops
December 7, 2009 | When members of the Armed Forces are far from home, few things are more important than reminders of their families -- particularly photographs. Those pictures can be found taped to office walls, in shirt pockets, and on the dashboards of...
